Reclining seat control



2,1947. w. E. MOREY ETAL 2,425,632

-RECLINING SEAT CONTROL Y Original Filed Dec. 18. 1939 3 Sheets-Sheet lj INVENTJRS r L William E. /1 re? Ralph fif/Vic oZs BYM b MATTORNEY38heets-Sheet 2 M fiNz'clzoZS YINVEIQTORS an E.

2, 1947- w. E. MoRY ETAL 2,425,632

RECLINING SEAT CONTROL Original Filed Dec. 18. 1939 3 Sheets-Sheet 5fig-{Ital ".l'] )7: INVENTORS a William ENorey Hal viz E. Nz'clzozs BMMfrjqnuzv Patented Aug. 12, 1947 2,425,632 RECLINING SEAT coNrRoLWiiliam E. Morey, Huntington, W. Va, and Ral h G- chol W l n Sprin M asignor o American Car and Foundry Company, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New Jersey Original application November 18, 1939, SerialNo. 305,054. Divided and this application De.- cember 15, 1942 SerialNo. 469,054

C ms- 1 This invention relates to reclining seat controls in general andin particular to such seat controls for use in road or rail vehicleswherein the seat back and cushion move in unison to a recliningposition, and is a division of our application for Reclining seat,Serial No. 305,054, filed November 18, 1939, and now Patent 2,319,743granted May 1 1. 43.

The majority of reclining seats now in use have the back portion movablerelative to the cushion with the result that a person can only be in themost comfortable position at one point of seat back adjustment. As theseat back is inclined the angular relation between the passengers legsand back varies and may vary to such a degree as to be very tiring tothe passenger. The major reason for such discomfort to the passenger isdue to the fact that in a number of the inclined positions the lowerportion of the spine isv not properly supported'this being due to thechange in angular relation between the seat back and, cushion. It hasbeen proven by experiment that the greatest comfort is obtained when theseat back and cushion have a constant angular relationship with theenclosed angle being approximately 90 degrees. It is an object,therefore, of the present invention to provide a reclining seat in whichthe seat back a d the cushion. area a constant an lar r lation to, eachother, I A further object of the invention is the provision of areclining seat in which the rear portion of the cushion lowers as theseat back as- Sum -s a mo re in p t A still further object of theinvention is the provision of a seat having the back and cushionrockably supported upon the seat base by means of. lin

A yet further object of the invention is the provision of a recliningseat the motion of which may be accurately controlled by an extremelysimple operating mechanism.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to personsskilled in the art from a study of the following description andaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is an end elevational view of the improved seat and disclosingthe seat by full lines in normal position and by line and dash in thefully tilted o re linin posit on;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the seat supporting and recl ning mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a sectional View taken substantially on line 3-3 of Fig. 4,and.

4 is. n nlar ed partial plan. View of th 2 operating mechanism forcontrolling the reclini s s a Refer-ring now to the drawings in detail,it will b se n that the se t is l bly p or ed up n a pedestal 2 by meansof a seat base 4 which may revolve only in a substantially horizontalplane The seat base may be constructed of any desired. material but inthe present instance is shown as, formed-of wood with a lug 5 connectedto the: front central part and formed with upstanding: ears 6 acrosswhich a pin 1 may extend and upon. which is pivotally mounted the lowerend of a front supporting link 8. The base frame 4 is also providedadjacent its rear corners with flan ed. U-shaped castings 9 secured tothe base by any suitable means such as screws l0. Pins [2 extend acrossthe sides of each flanged U.-shape'd; casting and pivotally support thelower ends of. rear supporting links l3 which are of such a; length asto rest upon and extend outwardly be-- yond rear vertically extendingflange [4 of the; flanged Ueshaped castings.

The seat portion proper consists of a seat back: 16 preferably rigidlyconnected to a skeleton seat. frame I! upon which rests a cushion l8preferably secured to a cushion supporting board l9,, which latter maybe either permanently or re-- movably, secured to the skeleton seatframe. Thefront' cross board of the skeleton seat frame has: securedthereto adjacent its center lugs 20, having outstand ng ears 22 acrosswhich extend pins 23 rotatably supported upon the upper end of the frontsupporting link 8 previously referred to The rear cross. member of theskeleton seat. frame has secured thereto adjacent its ends lugs 24-formed with outstanding ears 26 across which extend pins 21 rotatablysupported upon theupper ends of rear supporting links l3 previouslyreferred to. In this manner the. seat back, skeleton seat frame andcushion are link supported at a, lurality of points upon .the rotatablymounted. seat base. Attention is directed to the fact that by changingthe relative lengths of the front and rear supporting links, the normalinclination of the cushion supporting board and, therefore, the: cushionsurface may be controlled as canalsothe amount of angular movementpermitted- Attention is also particularly directed to the fact that thefront and rear supporting links are oppositely directed, thus certain ofthe forces acting on the links will tend to cancel each other and anymechanism controlling the position of the skeleton seat frame will needto. control only the dif erence in ,f. rc sact g upo th links.

I 1 A cle r shown i th dr w ngs the crane ably anchored by means of abracket 68 carried on I the front cross member of the skeleton seatframe. The bell crank 61 is also pin connected'as at 69 to a lead nutinternally threaded and engagin external threads ll cut on operating'rod 12. This rod is rotatably supported in the side 1 members of theskeleton seat frame and has ri idly attached thereto an operating knob13. Proper adjustment of the seat frame to its normal position isobtained by means of internally seat frame having a cushion receivingportion,

upwardly diverging rigid links pivotally supporting each side of saidframe directly upon said base for reclining movement of the frame, andmeans controllably connecting said seat frame and base-to control thereclining movements of said seat frame, said means comprising abellcrank pivotally connected to one of said links, and screw meansconnected to said bell crank to cause movement thereof.

2. A reclining sea-t comprising in combination, a seat base carried by asupporting structure, a

seat frame having a cushion receiving portion,

upwardly diverging rigid links pivotally support- .ing each side'of saidframe upon said base for .reclining movement of the frame, a bell-crankpivotally mounted on said seat frame, a clevis threaded thimble 74 andlock nut arrangement connecting the adjacent threaded ends of thetwo-part operating rod 12. Rotation of the operating knob 13 will causethe lead nut 10 to shift transversely of the seat frame, thereby causingthe clevis 66 to move inwardly or outwardly'with respect to theoperating rod and thus in effect changing the distance between theoperating rod and the front supporting link 8. In this manner rotationof the operatin knob 13"Wi11 cause an angular change in the position ofthe front supporting link 8, thereby positively controlling the tiltingof the seat back and cushion. i It will be seen that thefront supportinglink is inclined at a greater angle to thehorizontal than are the rearsupporting links and this is true whether the seat is in a normalor a'reclined position. Due to the different and changing angular relationship;existing between the supporting links, the horizontal components of theforces acting on the links will be of different magnitude and inopposite directions. The difference in these components must be absorbedby the clevis 66 and its connected operating mechanism. That the cleviscan absorb this horizontalthrust and hold the seatin anyadjusted'position is evident from the drawings, for there can be norela- .tive motion between the supporting link8 and the seat frameunless the distance between the clevis 166 and operating rod '12 ischanged by movement of the lead nut 70 along the operating rod. Theprovision of the lead nut 10' and bell crank 61 produces a powerincreasing arrangement'permitting theoperator to readily adjust the seatposition injeither direction between the normal and fully reclinedposition of the seat.

In operating the mechanism itis only necessary for the occupant of theseat to turn the operating knob 13 in the desired direction, thuscausing the operating shaft'l'2 to rotate. Rotation of the operatingshaft will cause the lead nut 10 to shift therealon and swing the bellcrank 61 around its pivotal connection to bracket 68., Swinging of thebell crank will through clevis fifi 'positively' control the angularposition of supporting link 8,

thereby controlling the inclination of the seat frame and its connectedback. 7

While the mechanism has been described more or less in detail withspecific reference to the drawings, it will be apparent to personsskilled in the art that various modifications and rearrange ments ofparts may be made and allsuch modifi-I "cations and rearrangements ofparts are contemconnecting said bell-crank and one of said links, andscrew actuated means connected to said bellcrank to cause movementthereof thereby controlling the position of the links and the recliningmovements of said seat frame. 7 c

3. A reclining seat comprising in combination, a seat base carried by asupporting structure, a seat frame having a cushion receiving portion,diverging rigid links pivotally supportingeachside of said frame uponsaid base for reclining movement of the frame, an operating rodrotatably carried by the seat frame, a lead nut having threadedengagement withsaid rod and movable thereby, a bell-crank pivotallyconnected to said lead nut and to said seat frame, and a clevispivotally connected to said bell-crank and to one of said links tocontrol the angular position there of I and thereby control thereclining movements of said seat frame.

4. A-reclining seat comprising in combination, a seat base carried by asupporting structure, a seat frame, having a cushionreceiving portion,

a pair of rigid upwardly and outwardly directed and seat frame forsupporting the front. side of said seat frame on the base, said rigidlinks supporting the frame for reclining movementirelative to the base,and means connected with said seat frame and front link to control thereclining movementof the seat frame, said means comprising a bell-crankpivotally connected to" said rigid front link, and screw means connectedto plated as Will fall within the scope of the appended claims definingour invention.

What is claimed is; 1. A reclining seatcomprising in'combinatlon,

a seat base carried by a supportingstructure, a

said bell-crank to cause movement thereof. f

5. A reclining'seat comprising in combination,

a seat base carried by a supporting structure, a

seat frame having a cushion receiving portion, upwardly diverging rigidlinks each pivotally connected at one end to said seat frame and at theother end to said base and supporting said frame upon said base forreclining movement of the frame, a. bell crank pivotally mounted on saidseat frame, means connecting said bell crank and one of said rigidlinks, and screw actuated means carried by'saidseat frame. and connectedto'said bell crank to cause movement thereof 7 thereby controlling theposition of therigidiinks and the reclining movements of said seatframe.

E. MOREY. 7 V RALnHqNIcHo s.

(References on following page) 'r REFERENCES CITED The followingreferences are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Brownell Apr, 26, 1932 MaslowskiMay 19, 1936 Black et a1. Apr. 29, 1930 Thomas Jan. 21, 1936 Knabusch etal. Mar. 27, 1934 Chapman Feb. 9, 1937 Number FOREIGN PATENTS CountryDate France Apr. 25, 1933 (AdditiOn to No. 714,601)

England July 21, 1914 England June 11, 1888 Germany June 8, 1885 GermanyJune 24, 1922 England Oct. 14, 1907

